Thursday, 20 December 2012

With a Bang, not a Whimper

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. It’s Yule, the
Winter Solstice, one of the main Wiccan sabbats, right at the top of the wheel
of the year. After Samhain – Halloween – it’s my personal
favourite. I have a party planned, all the better because mother and
father are away in the country. My close friends and associated
hangers-on will be there. I’m taking lots of trouble over the food and
the drink. For me it is the best or nothing.

Alas, I fear that I am wasting my money and my time.
As I pointed out here recently (Only Two Weeks Left), 21 December also marks
the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. I do not know any Maya and I
hadn’t anticipated any coming to my bash, but they apparently intend gate
crashing! Oh, well, I shall just have to be extra vigilant, making sure
that things go with a bang, not a whimper.

Around the world there are people so much wiser than I
am. They are getting ready too. But unlike me they are getting
ready for the end, not for a party. Actually I’m not quite sure what they
are getting ready for. The end it seems is the end for everyone but me,
not meaning me but you, or whoever and so on and so forth. The bells of
hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling for you but not for me!

I’m reminded here of Bob Dylan’s Talkin’ World War III
Blues, which concerns a dream of personal survival. Perhaps you know the
words? If not it concludes thus;

Well, the doctor interrupted me just about then
Sayin’, “Hey I’ve been havin’ the same old dreams
But mine was a little different you see
I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me
I didn’t see you around”

Well, now time passed and now it seems
Everybody’s having them dreams
Everybody sees themselves
Walkin’ around with no one else
Half of the people can be part right all of the time
Some of the people can be all right part of the time
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time
I think Abraham Lincoln said that
“I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours”
I said that.

That’s what the count to the Long Count comes down to – the
survival of number one, which I personally think is a lot of number two.
Apparently there has been panic buying around the world of candles and survival
kits, which suggest that some people have a highly relative view of just what
the end means. As I say, the bells of hell and so on.

In Russia
people are sweeping up torches, thermos, kerosene and other supplies.
Some enterprising shopkeepers are taking advantage of the situation, advertising
“Meet the End of the World” kits, which apparently include a tot of vodka along
with a bar of soap and a piece of rope. OK, I can understand the vodka,
but the rope and the soap?! The situation is so bad that Dmitry Medvedev,
the Prime Minister, has tried to calm the panic, saying that he does not
believe in the end of the world, “At least not this year”, he added
reassuringly.

In America Ron Hubbard (that’s without the L), a
manufacturer of hi-tech underground survival shelters, has seen sales
explode. Oh this is not a mere business opportunity on his part. He’s
taking the whole thing seriously himself, going underground on 21 December and
not emerging until two days later. I won’t bother sending him an
invitation to my party.

It gets worse. In the French Pyrenees the mayor of the
town of Bugarach
has banned UFO watchers from climbing the nearby heights of the flat-topped Pic
de Bugarach. Apparently many consider the mountain to be a sort of alien
highway. There all the ETs among us will gather on the final day, taking
the humans who happen to be around along with them as an act of charity.
It’s a fair return for past hospitality, one has to conclude.

On that very point I’m going ahead with my own hospitality
regardless, no candles, no kerosene, no rope, no soap and obviously no aliens,
since they will have previously decamped to the south of France.
Quite frankly I would rather share Yule with a lot of twenty-something loonies
in Knightsbridge rather than lunatics underground or on bare mountainsides.
There is one thing I will never be accused of – not knowing how to
party.

Anyway, that’s it for the season or that’s it period.
I’ll see you all in the New Year or I won’t, whatever fate decrees. If it
comes I really hope you all have a great holiday, with or without the
Maya. Happy Solstice and happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Listen to this. It's just so soothing.

John Christopher's book is called "The Death of Grass" and I second the recommendation - it's very believable. I read it in my early teens and it was turned into a very good BBC 4 Radio Play (over 5 nights) a couple of years ago.

After the "party like there is to tomorrow", it _felt_ like indeed time had ended... But I've recovered by now.

The forces of light will now strengthen again. The old symbols of pagan Yule still live today and still are considered "Christian" by some, how ironic. The worship of light (and the sun) is one of the oldest Indo-European customs.

In a few days, maybe I'll join the thousands of people at the beach of Scheveningen, who will jump into the sea at January 1st. It is one of the most silly and funny things to do.

lovely post!! I am coming to your blog after a long time, since I was too burdened with work! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! And my best wishes for the new year! May 2013 bring you many more joys and strength to take over the sorrows! :)

Love has gone and left me and I don't know what to do;This or that or what you will is all the same to me;But all the things that I begin I leave before I'm through,There's little use in anything as far as I can see.

Love has gone and left me, and the neighbours knock and borrow,And life goes on forever like the gnawing of a mouse,And tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrowThere's this little street and this little house.

About Me

Hi, I'm Ana! History is my passion -and that is not too strong a word - but I also enjoy politics, philosophy, art, literature and travel. In addition I have a deep interest in witchcraft, in all of the ancient arts. Apart from that I'm a keen sportswoman. I play lacrosse and tennis, but I love riding most of all. I have my own horse, Annette.